Her family claims that Audrey is not in a coma, but a state of "akinetic mutism", which began after she was accidentally submerged in her backyard swimming pool for several minutes in 1987. The hypoxia she suffered caused extensive brain damage, and coma or no coma, she remained a vegetable for life. In 1988 the family took the vegetative Audrey on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, to attempt to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary. Church officials of that region decry the "apparitions" as a fraud. Not surprisingly, no such apparitions appeared, and worse yet during the pilgrimage Audrey suffered a heart attack, allegedly incurring a cost of $25,000 to evacuate the girl.